


Rain and Roses

by Blurble



Category: Aveyond
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-04 08:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5327816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blurble/pseuds/Blurble





	1. Chapter 1

Cael was happily pouring dirt on his sister’s head when Mother snatched him away and dragged him off to see his father.  
  
“Your son is making Dana cry again,” she said, in the tones of someone at the very end of their rope. “And before that he was shooting spitballs at the guards. And before  _that_  he got into the pantry  _and_  locked the door behind him- from the inside- and so I think maybe you should take him. Now.”  
  
“ _My_  son?” Father said, raising his eyebrows, but he reached out to take Cael anyway.  
  
Cael went happily over to his father. Father told funny stories and played games with Cael whenever he wasn’t busy ruling the kingdom.   
  
“And how did you lock yourself into the pantry?” He said, holding both of Cael’s hands and looking him straight in the eye, his tone grave but his eyes sparkling.  
  
“Mother’s lockpicks,” Cael said, seriously. Mother groaned. Father burst into laughter.  
  
“Anyway, if you could keep your eye on him before he burns the castle down-“ Mother began, and broke off.  
  
“No, Mia! Don’t eat that!” She ran to the corner of the room to snatch Mia up, removing the soggy spool of thread from Mia’s chubby fist.  
  
Mia burst into tears.  
  
“Shhh, shhh,” Mother said, bouncing Mia on her hip, but this only served to make Mia bawl louder.  
  
Father held out his hands. “Let me try,” he said, gently taking Mia from Mother’s arms. He threw her lightly in the air and caught her again.  
She began to giggle.  
  
“I don’t know why I bother,” Mother said, disgustedly. “They all favor you, anyway.”  
  
“Well, that’s because they take after  _you_ ,” Father said. “It’s only natural they shouldn’t be able to resist my charms.  
  
At this Mother rolled her eyes. Father responded by pulling her against him.  
  
“Not in front of the kids, Ed-“ She warned.  
  
“Oh please,” Father said. “My parents were like this in front of me all the time and I still turned out fine.”  
  
“That is  _highly_  disputable- ” Mother began, before being cut off.  
  
Cael, thoroughly bored, wandered off to see if he could get past the palace guards.


	2. Chapter 2

The day after her fifth birthday, Dana decided she wanted to be a ballerina.  
  
"I was never like this," Mel said, after she had spent half an hour coaxing her daughter out of her new tutu, which she had been wearing every day for a week and which was beginning to smell.  
  
"Really?" Edward said.  
  
"Yeah. I missed the girly stage entirely," Mel said. "Never saw the point. I hope it ends quickly."  
  
He laughed. "I wouldn't set your hopes too high on that."  
  
"Well, I'd be satisfied if at least she would move on from  _this_ ," Mel said, and richly regretted it when the gardener showed up the next day with a pony.  
  
\---  
  
"It's fine," Edward insisted. "It will teach them responsibility. Besides, I always wanted a pet when I was growing up."  
  
"The second statement is pretty obviously the real reason," Mel said, acidly.  
  
"And the manure is supposed to be excellent!" He insisted, defensively.  
  
" _Not_  helping," Mel said. "Although I suppose I should be grateful you didn't buy them chickens- that was not supposed to give you ideas, Edward, wipe that goofy smile off your face."  
  
"But- but Mel!" He protested.  
  
"Absolutely not," she said. "You can go visit Stella, if you're so desperate for some feathery company. You are _not_  turning the castle into a farm."  
  
\---  
  
This is how they ended up going on a family trip down to Moo Hatchery.  
  
Dana had very responsibly insisted that they all bring along water because “when it’s hot it’s important to drink enough”. She’d then scolded Cael and confiscated his bottle, when he started using the water to make mud pies out of the dry, caked dust all over the cobblestones of the palace stairway.  
  
Cael had responded by pulling her hair, and Dana had burst into tears and run to Mel’s lap. Mia, not appreciating the intrusion, had started hitting Dana, not making much impact until her hands tangled in Dana’s hair, at which point they both began to bawl.   
  
All this before the carriage had even pulled out into the street.  
  
When they arrived, at last, Mel tumbled out of the carriage to hug Stella.   
  
“Why, hello there,” Ed said, to the toddler hovering shyly behind Stella’s shoulder.  
  
“Come on, Sophie, don’t be shy…” Stella said, to no avail. Sophie merely dug her fingers into the cloth of Stella’s shirt and burrowed her head into her back, hiding so that the only things visible were her wings.  
  
“She’s at that age,” Stella said, apologetically.  
  
“There are worse ages,” Mel said.  
  
Stella, taking in Mel’s utterly exhausted appearance, merely laughed. “I can imagine. Hello there, Cael. Going to visit the Metal Specter?”  
  
Cael nodded.  
  
“Alright,” Stella said. “The barn door is open, just be careful not to get to close. He bites.”  
  
“I know,” Cael said. He dashed off.  
  
“Dana! Can I have a hug?” Stella said.  
  
Dana complied willingly. The hug was followed by a kiss from Mia, and then Edward- at the prompt of a few meaningful looks from his wife- took the girls to see the chickens.  
  
“So.” Mel said, as they stood there together.  
  
“It’s nice to see you,” Stella said.  
  
“It’s been busy,” Mel said.  
  
“Come in for some hot cocoa?” Stella offered.  
  
They wandered off to enjoy the quiet calm of the kitchen together. 


	3. Chapter 3

School was very boring. Mostly it involved grown-ups telling Cael things he knew already. The rest of the time it usually involved the same grown-ups telling Cael he couldn't do things for reasons he didn't understand.  
  
For example, when making projects he was only allowed to use a knife with specially rounded edges. This quite obviously made it very difficult to cut properly. At first Cael had assumed that it must be that the school didn't understand how to sharpen knives properly. So he'd brought in a sharpening stone himself, and gone off by himself to sharpen his knife until it had a gleaming, properly razor-fine edge.   
  
The teacher had promptly confiscated it. And asked him in a very grown-up tone where he had gotten it.  
  
From her, of course. Cael didn't understand why she had to ask. Wasn't it obvious? She'd handed it out that morning, she couldn't possible have forgotten.  
  
A few more slightly hysterical questions uncovered the existence of the sharpening stone, and then that had been confiscated too.   
  
Cael had been furious the rest of the day. He'd kicked over his classmate's bench and slammed the door when he left for the bathroom.  
  
The stone was  _his_! Well, it had once belonged to his parents, but then he'd taken it when they weren't watching. In any case the teacher had no right to  _steal_  it!  
  
Cael stole it back during lunch. Which turned out to be another one of those things he wasn't allowed to do.  
  
\---  
  
One day the teacher assigned a special project.  
  
A “Genie-ology scroll”.  
  
She had explained that genie-ology was very important because it separated nobles from commoners. All nobles had genie-ology but commoners didn't.  
  
Cael knew about nobles and commoners, because it was one of those topics Mother tended to get edgy about. Once one of the visitors to the castle had gone on for five minutes about them, and Mother had sort of pursed her lips and then everyone had gone sort of quiet. Then the visitor had been very politely escorted out by the guards and Cael didn't think he'd ever seen him again.  
  
And once he'd asked Father about it and Father had said something about “a load of old fools”. And then Mother had entered the room and Father had shushed him quickly.   
  
So Cael knew about nobles, but he'd never known that the reason they were nobles was because of genies. He'd never met a genie. His father had told him they were wily and irritating creatures and Cael thought this must explain a lot about nobles.  
  
\---  
  
That night they ate supper together. This didn't happen every night. Sometimes they ate in the Great Hall at a very big wooden table and Father and Mother were too busy talking to all the guests to pay attention to Cael, so he usually slipped off.  
  
But when they could, they ate at a smaller table in a smaller room and then usually there were Questions.  
  
“What did you learn in school today?” Mother asked.  
  
The usual answer to that was “Nothing”, but today Cael actually had something.  
  
“I learned about nobles,” he said.  
  
Mother drew in her breath.  
  
“Nobles?” She said, very calmly.  
  
“And genies.” Cael said, casually lifting his peas on his fork.  
  
“...genies.”  
  
“Yes. I think it explains a lot,” Cael said, very proud of his reasoning.  
  
“Explains a lot about what?”  
  
“About nobles.”  
  
“Cael,” Mother said, putting down her fork. “I have not the slightest clue what you are talking about.”  
  
“We have a project about them,” Cael explained. “Since we're nobles so we should know about our genies.”  
  
“Really now?” Father said.  
  
\---  
  
Eventually it emerged that nobles were not made by genies after all.  
  
Cael was immensely disappointed.  
  
But Father agreed to help him make his genealogy table, even though Cael thought it was going to be very boring.  
  
He drew Father, and above Father he drew Grandfather William and and Grandmother Gwyneth, with heavy suntans. Then on top of that he drew Great-Grandfather Uthar and Great-Grandmother Sylvia and Great-Grandfather Hugo and Great-Grandmother Isabelle and Great-Great Grandfather Teor and Great-Great Grandmother Gueneve and Great-Great Grandfather Melton and Great Great Grandmother Cory and Great-Great Grandfather Austin and Great-Great Grandmother Meliss and Great-Great Grandfather Hugh and Great-Great Grandmother Winifred. He'd never met any of them since they were all dead.  
  
Then he drew Mother. Mother didn't have any Grandfathers or Grandmothers at all. She had an evil ancestor, but that was a secret, so Cael didn't draw him in. Anyway the evil ancestor had lived almost as long ago as Rhen Pendragon and that was so long ago Cael couldn't even imagine it.  
  
Under Father he drew himself.  
  
Then he added Dana, being a crybaby, and Mia.   
  
After that there was still room left, so he drew his uncles and aunts.  
  
\---  
  
The next day they hung their projects up in school.  
  
He looked at all the other projects and was satisfied that his was definitely the best.  
  
Then the teacher called him over.  
  
"Cael," she said, very patiently. "Who are the funny-colored people in your project?"  
  
"Oh, that's my grandmother and grandfather," Cael explained. "They went to the Southern Isles and got cooked."  
  
"I was not referring to his Highness William and her Highness Gwyneth," the teacher said, wincing. She paused, regathering her patience, and asked "Who is the green man?"  
  
  
"That's my uncle Ulf," Cael said. "But he's not really a man. He's an orc."  
  
"An... orc."  
  
"Yes. But he doesn't chew off anybody's skulls. I know because I asked. So he's actually kind of boring. Except that he does make potions that go boom!" Cael said, cheerfully.  
  
"And why is an orc on your genealogy table?" the teacher asked.  
  
"Because he's my uncle, and Father said genealogy is more like a family tree and didn't really involve genies at all. Uncle Ulf is family so he can also be on the tree."  
  
"Cael," the teacher said, very kindly. "An uncle is someone who is a sibling to one of your parents."  
  
Cael looked back at her innocently.  
  
The teacher sighed.  
  
"A 'sibling' is like a brother or sister, Cael."  
  
Cael rolled his eyes. He already knew that.  
  
"Is your Uncle Ulf your mother's sibling or your father's sibling, Cael?"  
  
"Neither," Cael said. "But he's still my uncle." He crossed his arms stubbornly.  
  
"And what about the white people?" The teacher asked.  
  
"That's Aunt Te'ijal and Uncle Galahad. They used to be vampires and even though they're not now Aunt Te'ijal says they're going to be again soon so I drew them in white instead of tan because that's what vampires look like."  
  
"Vampires don't exist, Cael."  
  
"Yes they do," Cael said.  
  
"No they-" the teacher gave up. She smiled in a lop-sided, maniacal way. "And I suppose the winged people are fairies, then?"  
  
"Don't be silly," Cael said. "They're Naylithians. Fairies are much smaller."  
  
The teacher gave up. Clearly, the crown prince had an overactive imagination.  
  
She would have to talk to his parents about that.


End file.
